5 mouth-watering McDonald’s food hacks you could make with all-day breakfast

McDonald’s fans are rejoicing Monday over reports the company may soon begin small-scale testing of an all-day breakfast menu, potentially ending the tyranny of the McMuffin-less afternoon.

Of course, having breakfast items — biscuits, hash browns, McMuffins and more — available at the same time as burgers and fries creates the possibility of McFrankenwiches. Here are a few of the possibilities that all-day McDonald’s breakfast could open to fast foodies everywhere:

The Breakfast Big Mac: Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, an egg, and a hashbrown on a sesame seed bun.

The Hamburger McGriddle: Take two of the sickly-sweet, syrup-infused McGriddle buns. Put a hamburger patty in the middle.

Burger/Sausage Combo Sandwich: One hamburger patty. One sausage patty. All on a bun.

Burgers on all the breakfast breads: Put your hamburger on a biscuit, a bagel, or a McMuffin.

Fries with everything: Sure, the McDonald’s hashbrown has its fans. But what if you want a breakfast sandwich with a lunchtime potato? Have a sausage biscuit with a side of fries.

Whether or not these become real menu items, expect some experimentation if breakfast all day hits McDonald’s locations nationwide.

McDonald’s launches table service in Germany

McDonald’s MCD is introducing table service in Germany as it reinvents itself as a “modern, progressive burger company” under new Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook.

Diners at its Frankfurt Airport restaurant in Germany, one of the company’s toughest markets, will now be able to be served at their table after placing an order either at the front counter, a digital kiosk or with waiter carrying a tablet PC.

“This is completely new for McDonald’s,” Thomas Brand, head of development and restaurant innovation for Germany, told a company magazine.

The special edition was handed out to guests at the reopening after renovation of the restaurant, McDonald’s’ biggest in Germany, which has more than 500 seats.

Easterbrook, a Briton and 47-year-old company veteran, is only the second non-American to take the job. His challenge is to halt a slide in sales around the world.

Weakness in France and Germany contributed to a 1.1% decline in comparable sales in Europe in the fourth quarter. Britain, France, Russia and Germany together accounted for 67% of European revenue in 2013.

McDonald’s said earlier this month it would remake itself after competition from Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG, Chick-fil-A and other chains bit into U.S. restaurant sales. Easterbrook has already said McDonald’s USA will switch to chicken raised with fewer antibiotics, putting it more in step with Chipotle and Chick-fil-A.

McDonald’s is making a huge change to its breakfast menu

In news sure to delight McMuffin devotees everywhere, McDonald’s is set to start testing an all-day breakfast menu.

The fast good giant will experiment with offerings its breakfast wares all day at some San Diego restaurants beginning in April, the company confirmed to the Chicago Tribune this week.

Some McDonald’s customers have long clamored for all-day Egg McMuffin access. However, McDonald’s has said limited grill space prevented the company from offering breakfast past a certain time each day. However, that calculus may be changing as McDonalds faces increasing pressure from multiple angles. The success of “fast casual” restaurants like Chipotle and Panera have cut into its sales, while it faces breakfast-specific competition from Taco Bell and other rivals.

McDonalds reported earnings of $1.1 billion for the period ending Dec. 13, down from $1.4 billion a year earlier. The company announced in late January that former CEO Don Thompson was leaving the company; Thompson was replaced by Steve Easterbrook.

You can finally buy pants with McDonalds’ Big Macs on them

McDonald’s is now selling apparel featuring its signature sandwich, the Big Mac. The fast food retailer unveiled the new clothing on a Swedish website this week, along with a range of similarly-styled products including bedding and wallpaper. There’s even a dog coat.

The products showcase a Warhol-esque design of dozens of Big Macs in a linear pattern. But if you try to buy the goods from McDonald’s Swedish website, be prepared to fail — delivery to the U.S. doesn’t seem to be an option.

The Big Mac collection isn’t a joke, AdWeek reports, despite the release coming right around the corner from April Fool’s Day. Instead, it’s part “of a global day of McDonald’s hijinks” called imlovinit24, a marketing campaign taking place in 24 cities around the world.

The flashy new McPants come as McDonald’s has been struggling financially in recent months. The company reported in a 21% decline in quarterly profit in January. Revenue, meanwhile, fell 7% to $6.57 billion, while net income slid to $1.1 billion from $1.4 billion a year ago.

“Over the next 12 months, our charge is to ensure that we are adapting to the changing marketplace,” CEO Don Thompson said in a statement at the time. Shortly thereafter, Thompson announced he’d be stepping down as McDonalds CEO after less than three years.

Watch Taco Bell’s Orwellian new breakfast ad

Taco Bell is supporting the upcoming launch of its Biscuit Taco with a dystopian ad campaign from the firm Deutsch suggesting rival McDonald’s Egg McMuffins are boring.

Titled Routine Republic, the “short film” lasts over two minutes and follows a man and a woman escaping from a Hunger Games-esque setting in search of a better breakfast.

“It’s another perfect morning in the Routine Republic, where happiness is eating the same breakfast,” the ad’s narrator says. “But that’s obviously not the case. There’s an army of clowns who resemble evil Ronald McDonalds, while the citizens of the world look tired and hungry from eating tasteless breakfast sandwiches day in and day out.

The ad comes a year after Taco Bell’s initial foray into breakfast, a market it hopes to grow substantially over the next few years. In an interview with USA Today, CEO Brian Niccol said he hopes to make early morning sales account for 20% of the chain’s business. It’s now at about 6%.

Taco Bell attacked McDonald’s in a separate ad campaign last year, featuring men named Ronald McDonald who said they preferred a Taco Bell breakfast to the Egg McMuffin.

Taco Bell, which is owned by Yum! Brands, saw same-restaurant sales increase 6% during the fourth quarter with help from its breakfast offerings. Analysts had expected just a 3.6% boost.

This is Taco Bell’s latest breakfast food invention

Taco Bell’s latest foray into breakfast foods comes in the form of a biscuit — the fast food chain announced plans Tuesday to roll out a Biscuit Taco starting March 26 across the United States. The Biscuit Taco is a breakfast biscuit in the shape of a taco stuffed with eggs, cheese and sausage or bacon.

The Biscuit Taco is Taco Bell’s latest salvo in a quest to make breakfast sales account for 20% of its business, according to USA Today. Morning meals currently account for just 6% of the chain’s sales, marketing chief Chris Brandt told the newspaper.

“We have to train people that we’re now open for breakfast.” newly appointed Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol told USA Today. “Breakfast is a sea of sameness. Everyone has the same, boring breakfast sandwich.”

The deeper dive into breakfast comes a year after Taco Bell entered the morning market with an ad taking aim at the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. It featured people actually named “Ronald McDonald” who said they loved eating at Taco Bell for breakfast. Last year, the fast food chain unveiled a waffle taco, which the Associated Press reports the chain is abandoning in favor of the Biscuit Taco.

Owned by Yum! Brands, Taco Bell posted a 6% same-restaurant sales increase for the fourth quarter in February, getting help from its breakfast offerings. Analysts expected a 3.6% hike, according to The Street.

While retailers should be commended for paying workers more, the pile-on has brought attention to a key group of low-wage employers that have been noticeably absent from the discussion. Traditional fast-food restaurants haven’t made a peep.

That’s not to say fast-food employers have been free of pressure from their workers and the public to bump up wages. The so-called Fight for 15 campaign has repeatedly hounded fast-food chains—most notably, McDonald’s—for their low pay, erratic hours, and most recently poor workplace safety.

While worker advocates will tell you there’s no excuse for the fast-food giants’ wage policies, a few facts help explain why retailers have been able to move faster on the issue.

“Generally speaking, if Target or Wal-Mart raises [wages] to $9 or $10, the labor cost increase that it entails is smaller than if McDonald’s or Burger King did the same,” says Arindrajit Dube, an associate professor of economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Those labor costs figures also mean that retailers can more easily pass wage increases along to customers if they wish, since worker pay represents a smaller portion of all goods sold.

Burger King is keeping this popular food on the menu year-round

Fast food chain Burger King announced Monday that its Chicken Fries will be served year-round after a surge in demand on social media for the product.

The item, which has appeared on and off Burger King’s menu since 2005, consists of nine pieces of breaded and fried chicken strips for $2.89. The chicken product helped participating Burger King stores nab a 3.6% sales increase during a two-month trial period, according to Bloomberg.

“It’s definitely one of those products that has a life of its own,” Eric Hirschhorn, Burger King’s chief marketing officer for North America, told Bloomberg. “The passion has been incredible.”

The move comes as Burger King and rival McDonald’s have been in heated competition to offer the least expensive chicken products. In January, Burger King brought back chicken nuggets for $.15, while a McDonald’s promotion touted 50 Chicken McNuggets for $9.99, or $.20 each.

Burger King, which is owned by Restaurant Brands International, reported in February that comparable sales rose 3.1% in 2014. This year, McDonald’s reported a 4% dip in domestic same-store sales, which the company said was due to “ongoing aggressive competitive activity.”

McDonald’s UK CEO Jill McDonald swaps burgers for bikes and car parts

McDonald’s Corp. MCD CEO in the U.K. has jumped ship to take over at Halfords Plc, the country’s biggest chain of bike stores.

Halfords named Jill McDonald as its new chief executive with effect from May 11, succeeding Matt Davies, whose departure to take charge of Tesco Plc’s UK business was announced in January.

Davies has been credited with reviving the company’s fortunes since joining in October 2012, boosting sales by improving stores and customer service. Shares tumbled on Jan. 8 when he announced his departure. They have recovered most of that in the meantime, but fell 1.5% on the announcement.

McDonald is currently CEO, UK & President, North West Division, Europe for McDonald’s, one of the most senior women at the company.

She joined McDonald’s in 2006 as chief marketing officer UK & northern Europe and was appointed to her current role in 2010.

“We are delighted to have recruited Jill, who has a strong track record of heading a large, complex, service-led business with great success,” said Halfords chairman Dennis Millard.

As elsewhere in the world, the company is facing stagnation in Europe–already a saturated market–from newer types of competition in the fast-food space.

By contrast, Halfords’ core cycling business is booming like never before in the U.K.. According to the 2011 census, over 740,000 people used it as their main form of transport for getting to work–up by a factor of nine over the decade.

McDonald’s responsibilities at her old employer encompassed around 3,300 owned and franchised restaurants across seven countries, more than 500 franchisees and over 200,000 staff.

McDonald has also worked at Colgate Palmolive CL and British Airways in brand management and marketing roles.

“Halfords has already made significant progress in delivering its service-led growth strategy and I look forward to joining such a strong team to continue to build on that success,” she said.

McDonald’s remuneration package includes an annual basic salary of 500,000 pounds ($743,000) and various bonus entitlements.

McDonald’s workers claim hazardous conditions in 19 U.S. cities

McDonald’s Corp MCD restaurant workers from 19 U.S. cities complained to regulators on Monday that their working conditions are hazardous and have led to severe burns from hot grills and fryer oil.

Workers taking part in the Service Employees International Union-backed “Fight for $15″ an hour campaign opened a new front in their two-year drive to increase pay and improve conditions in the fast-food industry by filing 28 state and federal complaints over health and safety.

McDonald’s workers, who already have claimed that they have been subjected to wage theft, racial discrimination and retaliation for attempting to unionize, hope to hold McDonald’s Corp responsible for the actions of its franchisees.

Some experts say a win could force the company to negotiate with workers and the union.

The latest complaints, targeting 19 franchised restaurants and nine operated by McDonald’s Corp in cities such as New York, New Orleans and Philadelphia, were filed over the last two weeks with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and state authorities. Other cities include Kansas City, Missouri and Miramar, Florida.

They said workers were pressured to clean and filter fryer oil while it was still hot. They also said that many stores lacked basic first aid kits or protective gear and that managers told workers to treat burns with condiments such as mustard and mayonnaise.

McDonald’s said the company and its franchisees are committed to providing safe working conditions for employees in the brand’s roughly 14,000 U.S. restaurants.

“We will review these allegations,” Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem, a spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Brittney Berry, 24, said she was rushing to meet managers’ demands to work faster when she slipped and fell on a wet floor at a McDonald’s restaurant in Chicago, suffering a severe grill burn on her forearm and nerve damage to her wrist. “The managers told me to put mustard on it, but I ended up having to get rushed to the hospital in an ambulance,” said Berry, who still works at the restaurant where she was injured.

“Fight for $15″ organizers say McDonald’s Corp and its franchisees should be considered “joint employers” because the corporation wields significant control over operations at franchised restaurants with things like technology and compliance programs.

John Tomich, a safety consultant and former OSHA area director for New York, said it would be “legally challenging” to make that case in this context.